Happiness Is...

Longaberger Garage Sale Bargains...

Here it goes...I'm not a "garage-saler" or a "thrift shopper", but I do love a great bargain. About once a year, I'll decide to get out the newspaper, plan a route, and hit the yard sales. I'm always so proud of myself when I drag everyone out of bed early and throw them in the van (in their jammies, of course) with a promise of a fast-food breakfast and maybe a cheap toy, if I happen to find one.
The big day for 2009 was about two weeks ago. The ads looked good, and several of them were within a comfortable distance of each other, making for a nice, easy route. I'm really bad at this. My tendency is to drive by a sale, check things out from the car (while driving and dodging customers), and if I don't see anything promising, head on to the next location on the route.
A true deal-finder knows that this isn't the way to do it, but that's why I only do it once a year...I'm not good at it! Back to my story...as I drove by my very first stop, I gave in to the urge to "window shop"...from my van. I couldn't really see what was in the garage, but the driveway didn't look too thrilling, so off I went...to the next address on my little route. Nothing there, either. I did have this urge, though, that I should go back by the first address before leaving the neighborhood. I had nothing to lose, and the kids were being good.
To my surprise, the garage was a treasure chest! You have to understand the value of Longaberger Pottery (and my love of it) to realize the deal here:

4 piece canister set (never seen it for less than $300 or $400 - even on ebay)
3 piece mixing bowl set
large turkey platter (absolutely huge)
meat platter
small pitcher
cream and sugar set
salt and pepper set
spoon rest
candlestick set (2)
votive candle set (2)
oval vegetable bowl
large loaf pan
gravy boat
2 qt covered casserole dish
cookie jar (beautiful)
tea kettle (beautiful)
medium mixing bowl
toothpick holder
Most of these items are retired, and are in mint condition.
My grand total...$300!!! There are a few little items that I really didn't want, so I will sell them on ebay, and hopefully come close to paying for the whole lot! The kind lady who sold them to me really just didn't want to fool with it, and was happy to have someone take it off of her hands!
I have been looking at the canisters (they are in Heritage Green - my mom's color) for a couple of years, wanting to get them for mom but never being willing to pay ebay's prices...I snagged them for $75. Wow. I have kind of had the urge to pop in on a garage sale or two since, but figure I would probably be disappointed after hitting the jackpot!

Nashville, IN

I suppose the word "vacation" means different things to different people. For us, vacation is a time of relaxation and the enjoyment of things that are out of the ordinary. Greg and I aren't particularly fond of extremely hot weather, so a summer vacation to a toasty destination isn't really appealing to us. With the ages of our children, highly commercialized areas aren't too attractive either! This year we decided not to go to youth camp, in favor of taking some time to relax with our family. We drove our church youth over to PYC at Frankfort, then went on down to Nashville, IN where we spent a few days just doing whatever it was we wanted to do. When the boys were 6 & 20 months, we went to Nashville and stayed at the fairly new Hidden Valley Inn. I believe it cost us $60 per night for an incredibly comfortable condo-suite. It was wonderful! This year I looked up Hidden Valley, and was amazed to find that I could still book it for only $89 per night. The suites are roomy enough for 6 people to be comfortable for several days. We took the Playstation with us, as well as several new dvd's from the Christian bookstore. These helped make for relaxing evenings. Scroll down for pictures from our fun four days in Indiana!





Relaxing...




Yummy breadsticks from the Harvest Moon Pizzeria...needless to say, the dress has never been the same...


Enjoying some "health food" from one of the candy shops...

He's gonna be taller than me before too long!

Relaxing with the kiddos...

Kaitlynn's lonely princess...

...finally found a prince!

Lake Monroe - Bloomington, IN

We had planned to spend Wednesday in Brown County State Park, but instead went to Bloomington. We shopped a little, then went to Lake Monroe, and found their beach to be pretty empty. The kids convinced us to drive the 25 minutes back to Nashville to get their swimsuits and towels. I was interested to see how Alli would react to the water. I figured she would be more interested in the sand, but as soon as she saw the lake she was hooked. She would go out as far as Greg would take her, arms and legs kicking as hard as she could make them go!

Mini-Vacation Part Two

We had to change our plans a bit for Thursday, due to storm activity throughout Indiana. We were all excited about spending the day on a pontoon on Monroe Lake, but figured it wasn't worth the risk. By the time we made it up to Indy, it was close to 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and the zoo closed at 5. We didn't figure we would have enough time, but thanks to the heat and high humidity, we ended up seeing the whole park (including a great dolphin show), and leaving before close. My favorite part was White River State Park, and the flowers. It was beautiful beyond words...with a book and a cup of coffee, a day could easily be spent in such a place! They were having a butterfly show, so we were able to observe them for awhile, as well.

End of the Journey...

So happy to be out of the carseat!

Exhausted at Outback...

Enjoying the hotel pool...

Finishing off the evening with a walk on Indy's downtown canal...

Friday morning we fueled up with a big Bob Evan's breakfast, dropped by Frankfort to pick up our youth campers, and headed for home!

***Since I tend to blog in spurts, I should let you know that there are 10 new posts...you may want to scroll to the bottom of the page to begin. I gave up 3 hrs. sleep to do this...let me know if it was worth it! :)
Valerie and I bought dad a very special tie for Father's Day. lol. Our plan was to take all of his other ties (while he was at camp), and leave this one with a card for him requesting that he wear it for us on Sunday morning. In our all our planning, we forgot to execute. I wasn't at church on Sunday night, because I was travelling to camp, but I did receive word that he didn't wear the tie. Bad father. You can click the pic to see how sweet a gift we gave to him, and you could leave a comment requesting that he wear it another time...I'm counting on you, Verla! :)

Happy 35th Birthday, Greg!

So glad Aubrey is home!



I won't bore you with bragging...just be sure that I have a winner of a husband...he's fantastic. Love ya, Greg!